State and local officials have influence on state government’s taxing and spending, but very little influence on our economy. The decisions that affect our daily lives and our family economies are made in Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, corporate headquarters and the backrooms of Congress and the White House.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights will reduce what little flexibility we have over our state’s economy, without having any effect on those larger forces. It will, if passed, make any change in the state’s budget, however popular, more expensive to enact. And it will place more management responsibility on non-elected state employees, who must respond to rules rather than voters.

I oppose TABOR.

Ray Cook, Lewiston